Friday, August 1, 2014

Sunset at dawn

Malin
is a small village of about 40 to 50 families situated in the
Ambegaon Taluk in the Pune district of Indian state of Maharashtra.
The village, surrounded by a very picturesque countryside, is located
on a hill slope of the western Ghat mountains, about 500 meters away
from the Manchar-Asane Road and about 120 Km from the city of Pune.
It is amongst a group of 60 to 65 similar villages located on hill
slopes in this area.

The
dawn broke over the village, on July 30th,
2014, with an overladen dark gray sky with sheets of rain falling all
over the area. The region is known to receive heavy rainfall, but
since last four days, the rains were particularly incessant and
heavy. A Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus
leaves the village at 7.30 am everyday after taking an overnight halt
in the village. But the bus stop is located at a considerable
distance from the village on the main road. Six villagers had woken
up early on that day to see off their children, who were taking the
bus. They had the left the village. Except for them rest of the
villagers and guests were very much in the village.

24
year old Vitthal Titkare was one such guest, who had come to the
village to spend a holiday with his wife at her maternal home in the
village. Most of the houses in the village except for a temple with a
35 feet high dome, a community centre, school and a few houses
withRCC construction, were built with bricks. Also like most of
villages built on hill slopes, the doors to the houses faced the
slope and not the cliff. Around 7'o clock in the morning, Vitthal's
brother-in-law, who was outside the house suddenly started shouting
and asked everyone in the house to vacate and run outside. But before
Vitthal and others could gather what was happening and move, their
world sharply and abruptly came to an end. A massive landslide with
large boulders and a flood of mud hit the village next instant,
completely submerging and burying everyone and everything in the village
under it. Within a few seconds, nothing but an eerie silence
prevailed over the entire village.

Around
7.30 AM, another MSRTC bus, travelling on a daily trip from Ahupe to
Manchar, approached the spot, where the village stood few minutes
before. The driver usually would stop here and pick up few villagers
going to Ambegaon market. That day, he had a shock of his life, as no
trace of the village was seen at all. All that he could see was a
vast slide filled with sticky reddish mud and boulders. He also found
that there was no signal on his mobile phone. Absolutely stunned and
shocked, he drove on and when he reached a spot further up, where
some people were standing, he stopped and informed them about what
has happened.

Within
few hours Government machinery and National Disaster Rapid force
(NDRF) men reached the spot with earth moving machinery. It was no
easy task to reach the village because of narrow roads and incessant
rains. When they reached the spot all they saw was a nicely plastered
35-foot mound. Only the temple dome was visible. Almost all the
houses were destroyed. Only a couple of them are intact still. It is
feared that the entire population of the village has got buried under
the mud slide.

Vitthal
was lucky. He was caught under a broken door. The space thus created,
allowed him to breathe. Later, around 1 PM he heard the sound of the
earth-movers clearing the debris. It was around 1.30pm that he was
taken out by rescuers. Not everyone was so lucky. Vitthal's wife and
mother-in law lost their lives, so also scores of others. As reported
on 31st
July 2014 evening, 36 people were confirmed dead and some 150 still
feared trapped below the mud.

Why
did it happen? Geological Survey of India experts fear that it could
happen again. The root cause of the landslide is believed to be the
levelling of the land on the hill for cultivation. According to one
expert, unlike Himalayas, which are prone to landslides because they
are rocky and there is nothing to hold the soil, western Ghat
mountains hill slopes are well bounded by the thick forest cover.
However, indiscriminate cutting of trees is creating conditions here
that can lead to such landslides. It's a deadly warning!